Servant main suspect in Santacruz murder: police

For 56-year-old Aarti Chablani, employing a domestic help without checking his antecedents proved fatal. She was found murdered at Muktangan building in Santacruz on Wednesday while her husband Dilip, 57, a businessman who deals in electronic items, and their daughter were away. Her recently-recruited servant is missing and the police suspect his involvement in the murder.

For 56-year-old Aarti Chablani, employing a domestic help without checking his antecedents proved fatal. She was found murdered at Muktangan building in Santacruz on Wednesday while her husband Dilip, 57, a businessman who deals in electronic items, and their daughter were away. Her recently-recruited servant is missing and the police suspect his involvement in the murder.

Aarti had employed 22-year-old Sunil just 10 days ago; they have another servant, Devendra Upadhay, who has been with them for a decade now.

The police said Sunil first offered a chocolate laced with sedatives to Devendra, who unsuspectingly ate it and lost consciousness. Sunil then proceeded to the bedroom and hit Aarti on the head with a sharp object.

“Sunil had planned everything in advance. He had observed an electronic safe in the house, but he could not break the safe on Wednesday and stole Rs50,000 and a high-end phone worth Rs20,000 from the house,” said Madhukar Chaudhari, senior police inspector of Santacruz police station.

Devendra, on regaining consciousness around 8.30pm, found himself lying on the kitchen floor. He then rushed to bedroom and found Aarti lying in a pool of blood. He immediately informed Aarti’s family about the incident and subsequently, the police was informed. Aarti was rushed to a local hospital and was declared dead on arrival.

“Robbery was the main motive. Though not much is known about Sunil, we have found out that he is from Uttar Pradesh and a team has been sent to UP,” added Chaudhari.

“Nobody except Aarti knew about Sunil’s background. Even her family don’t know much about him,” a police officer said.

The police will now be enquiring with the residents of the building to find out if anybody knew or had seen Sunil, which will help them in preparing his sketch.